The Social and Religious Designs of J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos

by Marissen, Michael

• ISBN13: 9780691037394
• ISBN10: 0691037396
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1995-05-01
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

"Michael Marissen's new and largely persuasive conceptions do much to increase our awareness of Bach's historical environment and his tendency to reformulate the conventions of his day. . . . The basic points of his book will appeal to a wide range of readers concerned with eighteenth-century studies."--John Butt, University of California, Berkeley "A superb study that accomplishes more than many much longer books. While the Brandenburg concertos have often been examined by musicologists, they have not really been taken seriously as cultural texts. Marissen makes it very clear that this kind of interpretive work is crucial if we are to understand music's historical and cultural significance."--Susan McClary, University of California, Los Angeles

Author Biography

Michael Marissen is Associate Professor of Music at Swarthmore College. His most recent book is Lutheranism, Anti-Judaism, and Bach's "St. John Passion."

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction Bach's Musical Contexts	3	(8)
Relationships between Scoring and Structure in Individual Concertos	11	(66)
The First Brandenburg Concerto	16	(19)
The First Movement of the Sixth Brandenburg Concerto	35	(27)
The Fourth Brandenburg's Concerto	62	(15)
The Six Concertos as a Set	77	(34)
Lutheran Belief and Bach's Music	111	(10)
Appendix 1 Text-Critical Notes on Early Copies of the Sixth Brandenburg Concerto	121	(8)
Appendix 2 Notes on Bach's Notation of the Gamba Parts in the Margrave of Brandenburg's Dedication Score	129	(6)
Works Cited	135	(10)
Index	145